This document proposes a theoretical framework for assessing the sustainability of economic information and communication technology (ICT) strategies. It divides the framework into four levels: technical, industry, social, and environmental. At each level, it lists relevant factors and poses hypotheses about the relationships between the levels and their impacts on greening the economy through ICT. The overarching goal is to develop a holistic evaluation framework that can be tested with stakeholders to guide sustainable economic ICT strategies.

1. Sustainable economic ICT strategy: a
proposed framework
Bing Qian Zhang
Professor Kay Fielden
Department of Computing
Green ICT Workshop, ICIS 2010, St Louis

2. Existing OECD ICT ranking framework
• OECD digital economic rankings
– Reflect countries’ abilities to absorb ICT
– Use ICT for economic and social benefit
– >100 separate criteria
– ICT infrastructure
– Business and government’s ability to use ICT for their benefit
• Relative presence in economic, political and social
landscape

3. Measures and weighting
1. Connectivity & technology infrastructure - 20%
2. Business environment – 15%
3. Social & cultural environment – 15%
4. Legal environment – 10%
5. Government policy & vision – 15%
6. Consumer & business adoption – 25%

4. Country Rankings
Total Connectivity Business Social &
cultural
Legal Govt Adoption
Weight % 20 15 15 10 15 25
Sweden 8.49 8.20 8.13 8.53 8.25 8.90 8.75
Denmark 8.41 7.85 8.18 8.47 8.10 8.70 8.90
USA 8.41 7.35 7.85 9.00 8.70 9.25 8.60
Finland 8.36 8.00 8.30 8.47 8.35 8.00 8.85
Netherlands 8.36 8.05 8.05 8.07 8.45 8.25 9.00
Norway 8.24 7.95 7.95 8.00 8.30 8.05 8.90
Hongkong 8.22 7.65 8.40 7.27 9.00 9.18 8.28
Singapore 8.22 7.35 8.63 7.33 8.70 9.13 8.48
Australia 8.21 7.35 8.24 8.53 8.50 8.85 8.18
New Zealand 8.07 6.80 8.17 8.60 8.45 8.50 8.29

6. Current OECD Goals
• Ensure population has affordable access to high quality ICT
infrastructure
• ICT as education focal point
• Wide scale provision of online goods and services
• Greater innovation and entrepreneurship for ICT-enabled
change into the economy
• No undue legal requirements placed on use of technology
• Adequate ICT protection for people and organisations

7. Theoretical framework for ICT
sustainability
• Three more levels of environmental factors
• Categorise existing criteria into clusters
• Form holistic evaluation framework
• Sustainable economic ICT strategy
• To be trialled in a multi-stakeholder study in ICT leasing
companies

8. IF

9. Green Economy (technical)
1. Cloud computing, Virtualization, 3R of disposal e-waste,
energy efficiency, reduce carbon credits, dematerialization
2. Develop new (green) ICTs
3. ICTs in supporting public communication (Web 2.0, e-learning)

10. Technology-focused hypotheses
• TF1: Technical infrastructure has an effect on the ways
in which green IT is managed
• TF2: There are green organizational impacts on
selection and use of technical infrastructure
• TF3: The technical management of green IT has societal
impacts

12. Green Economy (industry)
1. Create jobs by new green economy, customers'
requirements changing
2. New business opportunities in green ICT products
3. Raise & drive direction of economy

13. Industry focused hypotheses
• IF1a: Green IT organizational impacts will affect the
economy
• IF1b: The economy will have an impact on green IT
organizations
• IF2a: Economic aspects of green ICT will have an
impact on the economy
• IF2b: Social impacts will be felt by the influence of green
ICT on the economy

14. IF

15. Green Economy (society)
1. Long-term balance between human development &
natural environment
2. Change of customers' interests, government’s green
policies
3. Meet green policies, public opinion & changes of
customers’ interests

16. Social impact hypotheses
• SF1: There are green organizational impacts on
technical management
• SF2: There are societal impacts that influence green ICT
in organizations
• SF3: The purpose of sustainability will have an economic
impact

17. IF

18. Green Economy (environment)
1. Energy, raw material taking from ecosystem. Over
consumption of natural resources, green house gases
emission, pollution (e-waste)
2. Tackle climate change, pollution and eco-system
decline
3. Save costs, increase efficiency, decrease negative
impacts of economy on environment

19. Environmental factors hypotheses
• EF1a: The environmental impacts of green IT will have
an impact on the economy
• EF1b: The economy will have on the environmental
impacts of green IT
• EF2: The environmental impacts of green ICT will
impinge on the purpose of sustainability
• EF3: Green IT infrastructure will have an impact on the
economy

20. IF

21. ?